1.
Three classes of resurrection for humans:
John 5:24. Truly, truly, I say to you,
he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal
life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
This
is the First class – those who already have eternal life now – a spiritual
resurrection.
25.
"Truly, truly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when
the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will
live. … 28. Do not marvel at
this; for the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his
voice 29. and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of
life,
The
Second class
– a physical (not spiritual) resurrection.
and those who have done evil, to the
resurrection of judgment.
The Third class -- a physical
resurrection of judgment
(kriseoV
- crisis)
2. Regarding the First Class only – they
are ALREADY resurrected since they don’t die (that is, they have already died
to Messiah)!
Colossians 3:1.
You have been raised with Messiah: seek the things that are above, where
Messiah is, seated at the right hand of G-d.
2. Set your minds on things that
are above, not on things that are on earth.
3. For you have died, and your
life is hid with Messiah in G-d.
4. When Messiah who is our
life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory
(shekina).
Ephesians 2: 5.
even when we were dead through our trespasses, we were made alive together
with Messiah 6. and (he) raised us up with him, and made us
sit with him in the heavenly places in Messiah Jesus, 7. that in the coming
ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us
in Messiah Jesus.
3. The Spirit is raised for an eventual spiritual
body
1
Cor 15:42. So is it with the
resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is
imperishable. 43. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in
glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. 44. It is sown a
physical body, it is raised a spiritual (pneumatikon
--
“pneumatic”) [body].
If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body. …
50. I tell you this, brethren:
flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable
inherit the imperishable.
4. Do those who have fallen asleep have a
spiritual body now?
Not yet.
Revelation
6:9 9. And when the Lamb opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar
the souls (yucaV
-- “psychas” – “psyches”) of those who had been killed …
11b. They were told to rest a little while longer, until everything
was complete.
5. The spirits of First Class members remains
“in Messiah” until a time when all is complete – a time of ‘consummation.’
Ephesians
4:13. How long? Until we are all
together.
1 Thessalonians 4:14. For since we
believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with
him those who have fallen asleep. (To where is he coming?) …
16. For the Lord himself will
descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel's call, and with
the sound of the trumpet of G-d. And the dead in Messiah will rise
first; 17. then we who are alive shall
be caught up together
(Gr.
sun
autoiV
`arpaghsomeqa
Latin
simul rapiemur cum illis)
with
them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with
Yahweh.
John
6:38. For I have come down from heaven,
not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me; 39.
and this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of
all that he has given me, but raise it up at the last day.
6. Where is the final destination of the
spiritual body? “On the mountain” or
“in clouds of glory” or “in the heavens” (i.e. sky) – or in a dimension where
one may interact with spiritual beings and physical beings both.
Rev
14:1. THEN I looked, and lo, on
Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him a hundred and forty-four
thousand who had his name and his Father's name written on their
foreheads. … 14. I looked and there was
a white cloud (Heb 12:1). There was one sitting on the cloud like the
Son of Man. 15. Another angel came out of the temple
sanctuary. This angel shouted very loudly, “The earth’s harvest is ready!'”
7. Summary: Jesus was raised bodily from the dead. His wounded flesh was raised. Second and Third classes are raised in
the flesh to face life or judgment on the earth. The First Class, or elect) are not
raised in the flesh, but in the spirit to gain a spiritual body
eventually. SO -- If the elect (the
First Class) are raised as spiritual bodies and not in the flesh, why
did Jesus need to be raised bodily (i.e. his actual wounded body was
raised from the dead)? Answer: Because Jesus died for the whole human
race of flesh. His body was arose
for the sake of all flesh and his spirit arose for the sake of the elect.
